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XVII 
VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 

PREPARED BY 
ARTHUR D. DEAN 

Chief, Division of Vocational Schools 

It is fair to say that culture refers to the power to feel and that 
training refers to the power to do. Educators and the general 
public are apt to divide into two camps: those who believe in 
culture and those who believe in training. The former say that 
the introduction of vocational subjects is a menace to the liberal 
arts. They go so far as to state that statesmen are more needed 
today than carpenters, and when they do concede that there is a 
need for vocational training, they limit its field of usefulness to 
those who can not hold to the pace of the scholarly elect. The 
professional educator in making an appeal for cultural training and 
in decrying vocational training makes, generally speaking, a bit of 
play to the galleries when he says, " We must make men, not 
mechanics," " Lives, not livelihoods "' ; " It is the man we must 
think of, not the job." Less eloquently, but more impressively, the 
staid, complacent captain of industry argues for the necessity of 
industrial schools and tells us that from his own experience in 
employing graduates that the public schools are inefficient. Very 
entertainingly the muckraking pen informs us that the public schools 
are stupid in method, impractical in plan, and absolutely ineffective 
in results. The writer turns the muck and spreads its odors 
broadcarst. 

The State of New York, through its Education Department, has 
rather definitely settled some of the points which are raised with 
reference to the question of whether we should train people to 
feel or to do. It has said that public schools should do both. It 
assumes that the State needs statesmen and carpenters. It assumes 
that people need culture and need training. It assumes that all of us 
should have the power to feel and the power to do. It definitely 
asserts that it is no longer a question of which it shall train 
— thinkers or workers. It is its business to train thinkers and 

[377] 



378 NEW VOKK STATE EDUCATION DEl'ARTMEN^^ \^^ 

workers. It is no longer cultural versus vocational training; it is 
liberal and vocational training. 

Long ago the good son of Sirach said, " The wisdom of the 
scribe cometh by opportunity of leisure, and he that hath little 
business shall become wise." And in the next breath he asks, 
" How shall he become wise that holdeth a plow, that gloweth in 
the shaft of the good, that driveth oven . . . and whose dis- 
course is that of the stock of bulls?" Like a good educational 
standpatter, the son of Sirach answered, " He will set his heart 
upon turning his furrows and his wakefulness is to give his heifers 
their fodder." 

But it is no longer wisdom through leisure. It is knowledge 
through work. Furthermore, the measure of man is what he does 
with that which he knows as well as knowing well what he does. 
One can not separate his life from the business of the world. Farm- 
ing today is something more than turning furrows or giving heifers 
their fodder. The learning of the alchemist has gone out of the 
world of philosophy and magic into the larger laboratory of the 
shop and the field. If we were to follow the advice of the son 
of Sirach we would have a few people doing our thinking and a 
larger number doing the work. 

Vocational training goes further than making the man fit the job. 
It would do what it could to help make the job fit the man. This 
is no idle play on words for we find that the status of the job 
itself is always changing. Scientific applications enter into it. New 
fields of science open up. New questions of economics arise. 
When a man takes only a job, he may be a farmer. When he 
trains himself for the job, he is likely to become an agriculturist. 
A man may be either a horse doctor or a veterinarian ; a plumber 
or a sanitary engineer; a machine hand or a machinist; a politician 
or a statesman. It all depends upon the simple question, Has he 
fitted himself to the lowest level of the job, or has he brought his 
job to the highest level of the man? 

Some professional educators and some so-called practical men 
would attempt to confuse us. The former would have the edi^cative 
process revolve around the man ; the other would have it revolve 
around the job. But the Department in all its work in vocational 
training has kept clearly in mind that all knowledge taught in the 
schools and all training given is for use and for service, and all 
education is to prepare one for the vocation of living and living 
well and it is to find its expression in a better man and a better job. 

D. OF D. 

,. WAP po i9ii» 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 379 

- i INDUSTRIAL ARTS IN THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY 

SCHOOLS 

~rC During the past year considerable progress has been made in 
^ ^ definitely organizing the drawing instruction in the State. A good 
measure of this progress has come out of an organized system of 
conferences in various sections of the State, where the teachers 
listen to and discuss proposed plans for simplifying and making a 
possible working drawing for all grades of schools. 

Both syllabuses on drawing are full of excellent material, but 
teachers have found need of aid in developing a working plan. 
Suggestions growing out of these meetings have taken definite form 
in the shape of a drawing leaflet accompanied by three correlative 
charts which serve as a working guide for teachers and supervisors 
of. the grades. This outline is expected to aid those teachers of 
drawing who have not had the advantage of special and technical 
training in the subject and who, because of the ordinary demands 
of other subjects upon their time, are unable to develop a working 
plan in a subject so special and technical. 

The charts show the possibilities of correlating the subject of 
drawing to other subjects of the syllabus. By this means not only 
the supervisor but the regular grade teacher is enabled to apply 
quickly the work of the drawing period to other subjects and vice 
versa. For example, " Illustration " for the first four grades is 
charted with nature study, geography, reading and English; 
paragraphs in each subject, which lend themselves to illustration, 
are shown with reference pages. 

In developing the scheme of conferences, the State specialist in 
drawing divided the State into eighteen sections and teachers met 
from surrounding villages in a centrally located city. The con- 
ferences were held in the following cities : Albany, Bufifalo, Elmira, 
Hudson Falls, Kingston, Mineola, Oneonta, Plattsburg, Potsdam, 
Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Watertown and Yonkers. As all meet- 
ings were held on Saturdays it was necessary in three instances to 
combine two meetings in one in order to cover the State, thus 
making a total of fifteen such gatherings held the first year. They 
were successful from the start and the general spirit was one of 
enthusiastic and earnest interest. In one instance five teachers drove 
fourteen miles in a bitterly cold wind to be in attendance. At each 
meeting an organization was formed and officers elected. Two con- 
ferences were held wnth teachers from the normal schools. Un- 
doubtedly the key to the solution of how to obtain better drawing 



380 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

in the elementary schools of the State lies in the quality of the 
teaching of this subject in the normal schools. 

The results of the last June examination show technical improve- 
ment in the larger cities of the State. This is to be expected as 
specially trained teachers are employed in these cities. Notwith- 
standing the conscious efforts on the part of other teachers from 
the smaller places, the work in drawing continues to fall short of 
what might be justly expected. The chief reasons for such a con- 
dition are probably as follows : 

1 Teachers in practically all but the schools of the larger cities 
have not received adequate training. It must be remembered that a 
teacher of drawing must work under conditions somewhat different 
than, for example, a teacher of algebra. A college graduate who 
studied algebra is usually able to teach the subject at least with a 
fair degree of success, but a person who has taken a course in draw- 
ing in a normal school or college is not usually capable of teaching a 
subject which is as technical as drawing and which lacks definite 
textbook material of the cut and dried order course in algebra. At 
present the successful teacher of drawing must be able, first, to 
draw and draw well ; and second, to impart her knowledge and her 
training to pupils. 

2 Teachers in the smaller places are compelled to teach from 
three to eight subjects in addition to drawing. Obviously the other 
subjects are considered more important. Probably they are, but if 
drawing is to be in the schools and is to have a creditable position in 
the course of study, it should be taught as thoroughly, as well and as 
successfully as the other subjects. 

3 There is still a misunderstanding of the aim and purpose of 
the work in both free-hand and mechanical drawing. This is dis- 
cussed more in detail later. 

4 The present Syllabus for Secondary Schools does not meet the 
needs and demands of the average school in the towns and the cities 
of less than 20,000. Clearly it is difficult to develop a uniform 
syllabus, equally adapted to two types of schools: (0) a small 
union school where, for example, the teacher of drawing teaches 
French, English, one class in algebra and one grade subject; 
(b) the city high school that employs at a salary of $2400 a year, a 
specially trained teacher who devotes her entire time to the subject 
of drawing. 

Practically the problem of securing better work in drawing lies 
in obtainingf teachers who are more skilled in the teaching of the 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 381 

subject, and unless the subject can be better taught in the smaller 
schools of the State, it would seem that its discontinuance from 
the school curriculum would be warranted. 

Free-hand drawing and design, requiring as they very properly 
do a wide experience in the value of art, need the utmost con- 
centration on the part of the teacher, and the addition of so many 
other irrelevant subjects is detrimental to the teaching of the special 
subject of drawing. 

In the smaller places picture-making continues to be held up as 
the chief aim and purpose of drawing. The character of the Regents 
examinations in this subject has no doubt conspired to encourage 
this misconception. The State requirements necessarily call for 
much in the way of technical execution. Examiners must examine 
from two standpoints, (a) principle and (b) technic. Principles 
may be easily learned but their application is difficult and the 
excellence of the design, that is, the technical excellence, depends 
wholly upon the pupil's natural ability to draw. Consequently, fine 
technic can be expected only from the very few. On the other hand, 
principles of design and representation are within the grasp of every 
pupil and they may learn much in the way of refinement and good 
taste, but it is extremely difficult for any examination system to 
test the actual increase in the power of appreciation and taste which 
has come out of a course of drawing. It follows, therefore, that 
the examination which by its nature calls for excellence of technic, 
leads teachers to the conclusion that excellent drawing and fine 
" pictures " constitute the aim of the teaching. 

Representation and design are, or should be, primarily cultural 
subjects and should therefore be studied with relation to their 
practical applications to the material needs of the home, the school 
and the shop. Young children undoubtedly can draw. It is natural 
for children to express themselves through the pencil and crayon. 
The drawings are crude, but they surely express a thought and tell 
the story. No one would for a moment ridicule a child's effort in 
this form of expression, but many adult and high school pupils 
can draw no better than the child, and yet such people are more 
capable of appreciating fine things in the way of pictures, of jewelry, 
of furniture, of textiles, of wall paper than children ; but at 
present the Department has no way of testing this side of art in- 
struction. It can only test the technical results of a wall paper or a 
textile design. 

Mechanical drawing, however, is an exact science and therefore 
lends itself more readily to examination, but here again as in the 



382 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

free-hand subject, the inexperience and lack of training of the 
teacher in the smaller places results in unsatisfactory work. Here, 
as in the other subjects, practical applications should be studied. 
The work in drawing should tie up more closely with the shop and 
professional school and this necessitates more accurate knowledge 
of trade and technical conditions. It should have either a distinct 
educational aspect, or a professional point of view. In one case it 
should be taught in conjunction with the shop, and in the other 
case it should be taught in conjunction with mathematics as a 
preparation for higher institutions. In a word, mechanical drawing 
and free-hand drawing should each function with life. 

Drawing in our high schools should eventually become either 
purely cultural or purely vocational — both where the schools can 
accommodate the two lines of work. It should train for the average 
pupil in appreciation, and for the few it should train in skill. All 
people are consumers. Not all are producers. Nevertheless, with- 
out production there can be no consumption, and it lies with us as 
a state and a nation not only to train intelligent buyers, but also to 
educate skilled workers. 

It would seem at present from the drawing situation in the State, 
that the schools were as a whole failing to train appreciation, 
and they are most certainly failing to produce artistic workers 
in those industries which require good design and good taste. 
Training consumers of artistic products will not result from giv- 
ing instruction to those who are by nature gifted with ability to 
draw if the course of study in this subject is limited to rendering 
drawing from models or from memory, sketching from nature, 
and similar topics involving technical skill. Neither will dilettante 
work done by the great mass of our children without teaching 
them the principles of design and methods of good workmanship 
result in a body of industrial workers who are able to manufacture 
something besides cheap furniture, gaudy jewelry and other medi- 
ocre articles of consumption. 

The shop or industrial side of drawing must be constantly kept 
in mind. While it is well for the many to reproduce various styles 
of lettering for covers, posters, .announcements, and bookplates, it 
is necessary to industrial advancement that at least a few develop 
sufficient skill to earn a living through the designing of posters, 
the making up of advertising matter, the art of printing textile 
design and the hundred and one other occupations involving the 
use of art instruction. At the international congress for the pro- 
motion of art instruction held in Dresden in 1912, the major part 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 383 

of the exhibit of foreign schools showed that art instruction had 
a close connection with lace-making, with copper and brass work, 
with furniture construction and with stone and iron work. 

To sum up the situation and to make definite suggestions: First, 
the art courses in our public schools should develop (o) appreciation 
of the development of art itself on the part of all pupils of both 
sexes in order that they may be intelligent consumers; (b) voca- 
tional art or industrial art courses in our larger schools which 
would have the educational, disciplinary and practical value of 
other vocational courses; (c) the vocational and trade schools 
should strengthen their work in drawing and should relate the 
shopwork to courses in design in order that the products of the 
school may not only be sound in workmanship, but in thorough 
accord with the principles of good design. 

Furthermore, the Department must consider apart from the two 
broad fields of appreciation on the one hand and skill on the other, 
the question of drawing as related to the environment in which 
the particular school is located. That is to say, the type of draw- 
ing for city schools is bound to be somewhat different from the 
type which is studied in the country school. The drawing for the 
girls is similar in both types of schools. For example, they need 
to consider the treatment of home interiors which furnishes a 
variety of problems in schemes of spacing and color for the sur- 
faces of the room, for the furniture, and for the hanging and 
smaller useful articles'. Hgmes in the country are not, or should 
not be, different from those in the cities. But the mechanical 
drawing for the boys will be different in the average country 
school from that given in a city school. In a city school the work 
in drawing usually leads into industries related to the machine 
trades, while the drawing in the country school would naturally 
touch such problems as barn framing, land measuring, farm 
machinery, and drainage. 

Second, teachers of elementary and secondary drawing should 
not be expected to teach more than two other subjects in the 
schools that can not employ a specially trained teacher of drawing. 

Third, credit should not be allowed for advanced drawing unless 
the work is taught by a trained specialist and unless the school 
has proper equipment and drawing facilities. This will not work 
special hardship to the school, for elementary drawing may still 
be given in all the elementary grades and simple drawing to the 
pupils in the high school. There is little use in the small school 
attempting to imitate the large city high school in lines of work 



384 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

which it can not successfully do when there is so much that it 
can do. When agricuhure and homemaking training become 
general in these smaller high schools, it will be possible for the 
teacher of agriculture to teach the boys a line of mechanical 
drawing related to the agricultural projects and for the teacher 
of homemaking to give some instruction in home and personal 
decoration. 

Fourth, an adequate normal department should be organized and 
operated in the State Normal College for the training of teachers 
for secondary schools. The training of teachers for elementary 
schools is provided for in Fredonia and Potsdam Normal Schools ; 
but as far as the State Education Department is concerned, the 
only place that the high school authorities of the State can look 
for a teacher of drawing is to the State Normal College, which 
lacks an adecjuate normal art department. 

STATISTICAL INFORMATION 

Number of academic schools 
giving drawing Practically all 

Number of elementary schools 
giving drawing Estimated at three-fourths of total 

Number of hours possible in 

drawing in high school I PI III IV 

5546 

Average number of minutes 
given to drawing in elemen- 
tary schools Sixty minutes a w^eek 

Per cent of trained teachers in 
cities 90 

Per cent of trained teachers in 
villages over 5000 33j^ 

Per cent of trained teachers in 
-villages under 5000 10 

Per cent of credits possible in 
academic drawing 20 

Number of visits of specialist 
during the year 150 

Number of conferences of draw- 
ing teachers 18 

GENERAL INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 
The various types of courses or schools meeting the need for 
industrial training now in existence in the State may be classified 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 385 

into four groups: (i) the intermediate industrial school; (2) the 
trade school; (3) the vocational school course in the high school 
and the vocational or technical high schools; (4) the continuation 
or part-time school or evening school. 

The intermediate school has developed to the point that one may 
speak with some assurance of the general trend of the work. More 
of this type of industrial school have been established than any 
other. No two of these schools are alike and absolute uniformity 
is not expected or desired. The differing industrial needs and the 
varying school conditions preclude the possibility of there ever 
being anything like the uniformity of organization which prevails 
in the elementary and secondary schools. If unity of aim and ideals 
exist, the Department shoulcl be satisfied. The majority of the 
pupils are fourteen years of age or more. This is in accordance 
with that section of the Education Law dealing with " General 
industrial schools." These schools succeed in holding pupils in 
school after they have passed the age limit for compulsory attend- 
ance. They can not appeal to the vocational motive of pupils 
before they are old enough to leave school and arouse in them an 
appreciation of the value of further school training after fourteen 
unless these pupils are given industrial training before they reach 
that age. The Department has required that the majority of the 
pupils in this type of school complete the sixth grade before enroll- 
ing and that at least twenty-five pupils of the school be 
fourteen years of age. In this way the Department has met the 
intention of the law and at the same time has helped materially 
in retaining pupils in school at the point where the greatest and 
most serious elimination now occurs by arousing in them some 
interest in vocational activities before they are fourteen. 

While it is impractical for the Department to prescribe what 
industrial work shall be carried on in each section, there are certain 
very clear restrictions to be pointed out in the method of develop- 
ment. Obviously it is not wise for one community to copy exactly 
a school of another city. Too often this is attempted at the expense 
of local needs and opportunities. A survey of local industries 
should be made, opinions of employers and workers sought and 
studies prepared which show the elimination of pupils by grades. 
Furthermore when more schools are started in the same community, 
there should not be a duplication of work in the different centers. 

13 



386 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Woodworking, for instance, has proved very popular wherever 
introduced, the demand for it on the part of schoohiien being greater 
in most cases than the capacity of the particular trade to absorb 
the graduates. The opening of a second shop offering work of 
the same character involves a duplication of equipment, the funds 
for which might better be used to introduce some equally useful 
trade. 

It is a pleasure to report that the intermediate industrial schools 
are offering courses in printing, plumbing, electricity, sheet metal 
work, pipe fitting, as well as that old standby — woodworking. 
These schools will never approach any degree of perfection if they 
rely only upon proficiency with woodworking tools. The latter 
work may be valuable as far as it goes, but the woodworking 
trades now include no more than a tenth of the more desirable 
openings. A boy that fails to do good woodwork may yet have 
in him the making of a printer, electrician, plumber or drafts- 
man. Industry is now so varied that success or failure in any 
one line offers little evidence regarding one's probable success 
in others. Accuracy, neatness, order, initiative, skill and manual 
intelligence can be developed by the means of other tools and mate- 
rials than are now used in the ordinary manual training work. 

It is absolutely necessary that these schools break away from the 
ordinary methods of manual training. They must not be domi- 
nated by the atmosphere of the classroom. They need the atmos- 
phere of the shop. The first has been predetermined by the school- 
men of the past and is a matter of tradition. The second must 
have for its course the conditions which prevail in the most modern 
of our great industries. This involves throwing a greater degree 
of responsibility on the individual pupil than is expected in the 
schoolroom. 

The methods employed in these school shops are worthy of 
considerable study, representing as they do the standards of our 
large industries. The time clock now takes the place of the roll 
book and the boys soon learn that the mechanical register of time 
is more accurate than the human, and the lesson of promptness 
is taught without argument. In some schools the boy whose work 
in the shop is of the highest character acts as foreman for a week 
with the understanding that he is to see that materials are properly 
distributed, the estimated amount of work is accomplished and 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 387 

that it is of the required standard. Another boy acts as assistant 
foreman with the care of the benches and tools in his control 
and is also responsible for the cleanliness of the shop. The 
added incentive which results from the desire to be appointed to 
a position of control in the shop contributes greatly to the hearty 
cooperation between pupil and teacher. Time, stock, and cost cards 
are being introduced. In this manner the school is laying special 
emphasis upon the need of system and economy. The boy sees the 
necessity for rapid and at the same time effective methods of 
doing a piece of work. He sees that economy of material is just 
as important as economy of time. The boy learns he is dealing 
with dollars and cents, actual problems that involve materials and 
time and he realizes he is doing '' real work." In the classroom 
he learns about the cost of equipment, materials, power, overhead 
expense and burden. 

It must 'be kept clearly in mind that the boy is the primary 
consideration in the intermediate industrial school. The work 
done in the shops must have an educational value and it must be 
clearly understood that it is not the aim to turn out a great deal 
of product, but to give the boy the variety of experience that he 
will need in his actual work later in life. 

Intermediate industrial schools are doing excellent practical 
work. The cabinetmaking shop is making desks, chairs, kinder- 
garten tables, sand tables, costumers, bookcases, drawing tables, 
drawing boards, sewing tables, cutting tables, typewriter tables, 
lunch room tables, dining room furniture for vocational centers, 
manual training benches, supply cupboards, picture frames, 
looms, elementary drawing kits, sewing boxes, music cabinets, 
bulletin boards, and laboratory apparatus. The carpentry depart- 
ment finds abundance of work in the averag-e repair work of the 
school buildings. This includes the repairing of porches, build- 
ing partitions, building storm houses, rehanging doors, replacing 
window cords, laying floors, building large supply closets, remodel- 
ing buildings and the decorating of schoolrooms. The electrical 
departments do considerable work in the installing of motors, 
lanterns, repairing of bell and lighting circuits, wiring schoolrooms, 
operating lanterns and general repair work. Shopwork of this 
character as over against the more or less dilettante and abstract 
work of the usual manual training course gives a definite vocational 



388 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

trend to the industrial courses and presents added stimulus to work 
on the part of pupils. 

A forward step has been taken in the vocational work for 
girls. Its practical work has taken a cue from the methods em- 
ployed in the schools for boys. The girls are taking orders for 
hats, dresses and cooked foods. They are repairing garments 
and making over last-year hats. The girls of several schools not 
only cook lunches for themselves but sell lunches to other pupils, to 
their teachers, and in one case, furnish a lunch for girls in a 
neighboring factory employing women. 

A merely intensified form of manual training, sewing, millinery 
or any other shop activity will not serve the purposes of the 
pupils nor of the industrial world. For the purposes of conven- 
tional culture the usual type of manual or household art training 
serves fairly well ; but it must not be forgotten that a vocational 
school is primarily for the purpose of enabling pupils to select and 
acquire a vocation. If pupils are allowed to dawdle and play with 
industrial elements they will gain false ideas of industry that will 
justify the criticism so often made that the schools fail to teach 
economy of time and effort. True, no school can give the power- 
ful incentive to good industrial work that is forced on the busi- 
ness world by economic stress, but some knowledge of the value 
of time and well-directed energy should be one of the important 
aims of the vocational school. A dilettante system of handwork 
with culture as its only aim will defeat the purpose of this 
school ; but if the elementary processes of industry are shown in 
their relations to mathematics, language, history and science, 
pupils will feel a joy in work that comes from strength and skill 
and breadth of knowledge. 

The bookwork in these schools is improving but there is still 
much to be done. Vocational training has the great advantage of 
presenting points of contact between the studies and occupations 
in the school and the life of the community. By using these the 
mathematics and elementary science on the one hand and the 
geography and history on the other, can be lifted out of mere 
textbook studies and become interpretations of the activities and 
social life of the community. The present difficulty lies in the 
fact that there are few teachers who know how to relate the 
bookwork to the shopwork or activity work of the school or 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 389 

community. They have been accustomed to impart information 
from books without appreciating the relation of the book facts to the 
life and occupation of the community. The problem of securing 
teachers who can successfully correlate is not easy. Teachers 
for the bookwork are selected from the regular teaching force 
and are remolded to fit industrial school needs. In brief, the 
bookwork teacher is a recast product of past normal training. 
The shop teacher, being already a practical mechanic, requires no 
recasting of teaching methods. He has none with which to start. 
The problem is to mold him into a good teacher of shopwork. 

The trade school idea has taken definite work for several 
reasons, (a) The idea is not so objectionable as formerly, (b) 
Pupils who graduate from the intermediate school may not care 
to enter the vocational course in a high school as candidates for 
an academic diploma, and a trade school is necessary if these 
graduates still wish to continue in the public school system, (c) 
Some intermediate schools have developed into trade schools and 
have left to an intensified form of manual training the question of 
discovering the industrial capacities of the youth. 

These schools, while a part of the public school system, are 
absolutely cut off from the Regents in so far as examinations, 
certificates, diplomas and credits are concerned. In every in- 
stance the pupils are attending from six to eight hours a day in- 
stead of the usual five hours of the regular schools. In several 
instances these schools are open eleven months a year. 

Special effort is made to introduce industrial methods and 
standards in the shopwork. Such methods include (a) the mak- 
ing of jigs to facilitate manufacture and to secure uniformity in 
the product; (b) division of labor to increase the skill and speed 
of the individual and the efficiency of the working force; (c) the 
appointing of pupils as group foremen and room foremen to de- 
velop leadership and organizing ability; (d) the use of the cost and 
time cards and the assigning of a wage rate for pupils' work; and 
(e) the use of a checking system to fix responsibility for poor 
work. 

Everything which is made is on the basis of a " shop project." 
As the term is used here, it is something to be done in the school 
sFop which involves a limited and definite amount of equipment, 
materials and time, and which is directed toward the completion 



390 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

of a specific and valuable result. For example : the boy is 
assigned to make a table for the school or for sale. He goes to 
his shop foreman and gets his order for the work; writes up his 
understanding of it for criticism and change; makes his drawing 
and blue print for the job, submitting it for approval; draws his 
specifications for the work ; and follows them in the construction 
of the work. He calculates dimension, stock and cost thereof ; 
submits orders therefor for approval ; calculates probable time 
necessary for job and the labor cost; gets material and tools from 
stock; and carries out the job under inspection and approval. He 
keeps a time card for the job; returns unused material and tools; 
determines cost of work in material and time and the commercial 
value of the table; and checks results against his estimate, seeking 
to determine the differences between his estimate and his actual 
results. 

A project in dressmaking: the pupil receives from the in- 
structor an order to make a shirtwaist, together with a descrip- 
tion of the kind of waist, the CLuality of goods and the measure- 
ments for the same. She looks up waists in fashion books con- 
taining the desired pattern and gets practice in the use of English 
by writing out her plan for the work. She makes a design of 
the shirtwaist and presents it for acceptance by the instructor; 
she estimates the quality of material of every kind required in the 
construction of the waist and its probable cost ; she makes the 
waist according to the designs and plan which she had submitted 
under supervision. By the time card she keeps a record of the 
time consumed in the work : finds out what the work has cost and 
what to charge ; and checks her results against her estimate. 

The success of the " vocational school " courses in existing 
high schools and the technical high schools is still an open ques- 
tion. These schools or courses offer an academic diploma to 
those who complete a four-year course. They are intended to 
give definite technical instruction to pupils who wish to enter the 
industries immediately upon graduation. Such efforts are, of 
course, commendable. There is, however, considerable debate at 
present as to whether courses so organized can, under present 
conditions, meet the need for specialized technical training on the 
secondary level as fully as that need ought to be met; whether 
both the academic and the shop instruction can be adapted to 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 39I 

industrial needs as closely and completely under such a plan as 
under a more isolated form of organization. It is largely a ques- 
tion of the extent to which college entrance requirements and 
traditional academic standards may interfere with the complete 
development of the specialized technical course on its own merits, 
especially in its present experimental stage. 

It is fortunate that the Education Law relating to vocational 
training provides for separate and independent organization with 
a .staff of teachers specially fitted for, and giving their attention 
exclusively to, this work. This is necessary in order to give 
these schools the distinctive aim and purpose which they should 
have, and it is of very great importance in the present experi- 
mental stage of vocational training, when a content and a method 
for these courses are still to be developed. Not all teachers have 
the special training and ability needed for this pioneer work; not 
all are yet in full sympathy with vocational training. It is of the 
utmost importance that vocational courses should preserve their 
integrity, that they should be really vocational if they pretend to 
be. The independent organizations, established in certain com- 
munities of the State, and having a select staff of teachers, are 
rendering valuable service in working out a content and method 
for similar courses to be established later in other schools in other 
parts of the State. 

In a consideration of continuation schools, the development of 
evening trade schools naturally takes precedence. There has been 
a gratifying advance in the larger cities in the numbers attend. ng 
these schools. Buffalo has 795 pupils enrolled in its evening- 
technical school; Yonkers has 1026; New York City has 6506. In 
New York City, the enrolment has increased 46 per cent over the 
preceding year. 

Among the subjects taught in these schools may be mentioned 
carpentry and joinery, cabinetmaking, pattern-making, black- 
smithing, plumbing, machine shopwork, printing and typesetting, 
mathematics, free-hand, architectural and mechanical drawing, 
machine design, applied electricity, electrical engineering, steam 
engineering, electric wiring and installation, industrial chemistry, 
applied physics, advanced dressmaking, millinery and domestic 
science. 

One significant change in New York City which might well be 
imitated in other cities, is the offering of shorter courses in trade 



392 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPx\RTMENT 

subjects. Evening school principals have prepared schedules 
showing- at what time in the school year certain processes in each 
trade are to be studied. This will enable pupils to perfect them- 
selves in that branch of their trade in which they are deficient 
without being obliged to take the whole course. Flexibility of 
courses and admission make evening schools doubly valuable to 
workingmen. 

Looking at the question of evening trade schools from a State 
standpoint it would seem that many cities of moderate size were 
far behind in the development of such schools. Whenever there 
is a demand for any kind of skilled labor that will lift the worker 
from the ranks of the less skilled or unskilled, and that will 
restore the equilibrium between the insufficient supply of labor 
that is well paid and the overcrowded supply of labor that is 
underpaid, such a demand should be met by opportunity for in- 
struction. It would appear that cities like Cohoes, Troy, Elmira, 
Oswego, Binghamton, Auburn and others which have a large 
number of unskilled workers might well establish evening schools 
for definite trade instruction. Comparatively little is done in this 
direction. These cities are merely continuing the old line of 
evening school work which consists of compelling illiterate for- 
eigners and employed youth between fourteen and sixteen to at- 
tend for instruction in the elementary branches. In passing it 
should be said that there is much to be done in improving the 
conditions of instruction for compulsory attendance in evening 
schools. At present the evening schools in most of the cities of 
the third class are merely compulsory — compulsory for the 
pupils, compulsory for the city. There is little initiative shown 
by either party. Relatively speaking, they are a failure. They 
fail to enforce the compulsory attendance law; they fail to in- 
terest the pupils. 

To improve the conditions there should be appointment of the 
best teachers from the regular corps. School activities of all 
kinds that may attract these pupils should be freely ofifered. These 
would include physical exercise of from 15 to 20 minutes an even- 
ing, which should be as informal as possible, as basketball and 
other athletic games; the use of a school library, the shop, etc.; 
the use of the stereopticon for instruction and general informa- 
tion. An attempt should be made to secure the cooperation of in- 
dustrial employers to take an active personal interest in the welfare 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 393 

of employed boys and girls. When there are sufficient pupils 
a vocational bureau could be established. There should be a 
change in the course of study. The course should offer the formal 
studies, but should depart from the regular day school in that the 
amount to be taught should be reduced and the principle of selec- 
tion and reduction should be a utilitarian one. What would be 
taught would be very definitely stated; the procedure would be 
thorough, though the course would be very modest in its preten- 
sions. Teaching for the factory boys would be largely individual, 
as the subject matter would be modified in application to the boy's 
own trade. The boys would be encouraged to suggest as 
material for instruction their own experiences as they observed 
them in the trade. 

A previous report emphasized the importance of day continua- 
tion schools. Such a system would do much to obviate the pres- 
ent difficulties in attempting to enforce compulsory attendance in 
evening schools. So long as the law exists relating to evening 
schools, every effort must be made to reduce it to a working con- 
dition so that it may prove beneficial to those who do attend such 
schools. The day continuation classes would be an ideal solution 
if the attendance therein were made compulsory; but such classes 
would never become general unless required by State legislation. 
This opinion is confirmed by conference with a number of gentle- 
men who are heads of trade and industrial schools ; they have 
interviewed some of the largest and most enlightened employers 
in the various trades; these employers stated that they would not 
object to such a law, but doubted strongly that the small em- 
ployer could afford to pay a boy who would be absent at school 
during the day ; nor could they see their way clear to send their 
own youthful employees during business hours unless their com- 
petitors did likewise. 

Any day continuation school which is established under present 
public sentiment as written in the Education Law must depend 
upon the best public spirit of industrial employers. Buffalo has 
a part-time continuation class in connection with its school of 
printing. This is the initial move in this field in this State. Most 
of the employing printers of the city are cooperating with the 
local school authorities in furthering the movement. On Thurs- 
day afternoons they send their apprentices to the school for in- 
struction between the hours of i and 5.30. 



394 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

In concluding these statements with reference to industrial 
training, three points not mentioned in other reports should be 
emphasized: (i) the school authorities must be thoroughly con- 
versant with the industrial needs of their communities; (2) they 
must know the opportunities which exist for successful advance- 
ment in the various occupations of the community; (3) they 
must keep in touch with the graduates of their schools. The 
first point can be covered by making a careful surve}- of their field. 
The second can be brought about by establishing" vocational 
bureaus which study vocational opportunities. The third can be 
done only by personal work on the part of school teachers. The 
school should not leave its pupils to shift for themselves after 
garduation. It is the plain duty of the teacher to see that every 
girl and boy that have faithfully completed all requirements for 
entrance upon trade work be secured a position in his or her 
chosen field. Competition between industrial workers is so keen 
today that imless some aid be given, the new situation will prove 
a difficult one for the youthful. In one city in the State the cham- 
ber of commerce was induced to assist in the placement of grad- 
uates of the intermediate industrial school. In nearly all places 
the local advisory board will prove a valuable aid as in every 
case this board has members who are vitally interested in the 
trades. The relationship between the industrial school and its 
graduates should be almost paternal in its nature. It is not 
enough merely to see that former pupils have been safely 
launched in the world's work. The school should keep a record 
of their career. This will serve a twofold purpose, making it pos- 
sible to give more aid to the boys and girls after they have gone 
to work, and furnishing the school with a safe basis for determin- 
ing what are the actual results of its training. For instance, if 
many of the graduates fail because of certain defects, either lack 
of intellectual training or technical skill, the opportunity is given 
— once these facts are known — • to improve the curriculum 
along the lines in which it is weak. Pupils must be trained to 
meet actual everyday conditions. One will never be sure whether 
efforts to benefit them have been of actual value unless some sort 
of a life study department is connected with the school. 

Furthermore, the school should obtain the opinion of superin- 
tendents and foremen concerning the weaknesses of the workers 
who come from the school. All these facts can be readily tabu- 
lated on regular cards which are used to keep the pupils' school 
records. 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 
Summary of vocational schools 



395 



CITY OR VILLAGE 



c o 



^ F -^ 

3 S e 

>. D"C.2 

n! oj cut- 



Albany ., 

Buffalo ; . . 

Corning, N. S 

Elmira 

Fayetteville 

Freeville 

Gloversville 

Herkimer 

Hudson 

Hudson Falls 

Jamestown 

Lancaster ., 

Lansingburg 

Mount Vernon 

New York City School 

No. 100 

New York City Trade 

School for Girls 

North Tarrytown 

Owego 

Rochester 

Schenectady 

Utica 

Waverly 

Yonkers 

Total 



4 
23 



I 

I 

I 

i6 



I 

12 



2 
I 

H 
4 
3 
I 

5 



93 

538 
18 
60 

51 

55 

"38 
116 

25 

48 

19 

24 

630 



17 

33 

223 

100 

41 

47 

163 



100 

120 

36 

'28 
46 

23 
26 
42 



63 
76 

47 



447 
13 
22 

170 
40 

34 
18 

71 



42 



38 
36 



25 
25 



112 

59 
40 
46 



158 



50 
112 

779 



200 
13 
87 
24 



177 
929 



241 



I 136 



37 



2 339 



I 608 



I 915 



2 526 



' Includes only those schools operating under article 22 of the Education Law. 
Does not include pupils studying in evening trade schools in Buffalo, Syracuse, 
Rochester, New York City, etc. 

Some of the shop subjects taught boys are: architectural draw- 
ing, design drawing, mechanical drawing, joinery, woodturning, 
cabinetmaking, patternmaking, molding, electrical construction, 
machine shop practice, printing, blacksmithing, sheet metal work, 
pipe fitting, plumbing', bookbinding, power plant operation, gas 
engine construction, glovemaking. 

Some of the shop subjects taught girls are: millinery, dress- 
making, cooking, laundry work, household physics, household 
chemistry, household decoration, glovemaking, home nursing, 
personal hygiene, sanitation. 

Bookwork subjects taught boys and girls are : English, history, 
business accounts, shop mathematics, geography. 



396 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANIC ARTS, AND HOME- 
MAKING 
For one hundred fifty years agriculture has been regarded as 
a proper subject for school study and a quarter of a century has 
passed since the first successful high school of agriculture was 
opened in this country. Not until this decade, however, has the 
problem of secondary school agriculture had anything like uni- 
versal consideration. At the present time schools of agriculture 
and courses in agriculture as well as laws relating to the estab- 
lishment of the same in the various states are so numerous, 
diverse and metamorphic that it is difficult to follow the devel- 
opment. It is a fact worthy of note that with this variety of 
plans there are certain points common to the most successful 
systems, among which are : 

1 The schools are so located that pupils may receive instruc- 
tion from specially trained teachers and live at home. 

2 The conditions for the establishment of the schools are such 
that local investment is necessary in order to secure State aid. 

3 The administration is centralized. 

That the principles underlying the above conditions are of im- 
portance in the organization of the individual school is shown by 
the fact that the activities of many successful schools are based 
upon one or more of these principles. 

In the State of New York there are in successful operation 
twenty-seven schools of agriculture, mechanic arts and home- 
making organized in accordance with and maintained under the 
provisions of article 22 of the Education Law. Eleven of these 
schools are taking up this work for the first time this fall. The 
remaining sixteen are fortified with the experiences of a year. 
Of the following ideas, many are suggested by the activities of 
one or more of these schools. Some express work accomplished 
or in the process of accomplishment, and other desirable plans 
for the future. 

The best school of agriculture is closely identified with the 
community and its affairs. The degree of success seems to 
depend in a large part upon how much the school gets from the 
community and how^ much it gives in return. Such a school 
stands for progress and efficiency and through its officers and 
teachers takes the initiative in movements toward community 
welfare. Each farm home organization and society seems to lie 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 397 

rich in opportunity for the school seeking it. Each boy and girl 
comes to school with an almost inexhaustible store of experience. 
The wise teacher takes advantage of such conditions. He con- 
nects his school with as many of the neighborhood centers as 
possible; he leads his pupils to interpret their experiences in the 
light of biological and physical laws; he encourages the develop- 
ment of the sense of social interdependence. This procedure does 
not always result in a temporary knowledge of the number of 
swimmeretts on a crayfish, or the laws of falling bodies in terms 
of S= Yz gt^, but it does formulate a groundwork of science in 
terms of experience. This fundamental science is necessary as a 
basis for later instruction along the special lines of agriculture 
and homemaking. It is evident that local and individual work of 
this kind can not be outlined in a general syllabus nor can its 
results be tested by a uniform examination. On the other hand, 
experience has shown that some standard is necessary. In view 
of these facts, the Department encourages the development of 
local activities and local syllabuses under the close direction and 
supervision of the Division of Vocational Schools. 

Every farming community has a wealth of equipment desirable 
for a school of agriculture. Reports from schools now in opera- 
tion indicate that the owners are almost without exception glad 
to assist the school in the use of this material. One teacher 
reports that men who are unwilling to cooperate are usually the 
ones without much worth seeing or using. Several of the schools 
have arranged a definite program of lectures and demonstrations 
by men either resident in the community or carrying on business 
there. 

The following program arranged by the Hannibal school is a 
typical one : 

Lectures 1912-13 

Milton Terpening Potato Growing 

R. Cooper Potato Growing 

W. J. Bradt Making New Meadows 

Hubert Rogers Dairy Testing 

Rev. F. W. Dunning ~) , , „, Geology of Hannibal 

■r^ T^ A T,r !-_>ocal Clergymen „ . 

Rev. B. A. Matzen J "^^ Cooperation 

Einest Lonis Farm Management 

Mrs E. W. Rice Saving Strength 

Raymond Cooper When Cows Pay 

Dr Lattin Picking and Packing Fruit 



398 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Field demonstration 

F. E. Rogers (Oswego county food 
expert) Grading Fruit 

Field demonstration 

F. S. Welsh (N. Y. C. farm agent) Drainage 

Field demonstration 

C. F. Bley (Tree expert) Pruning Old Orchards 

Field demonstration 

C. F. Bley Shaping Young Fruit Trees 

Field demonstration 
Raymond Cooper A Sanitary Stable 

Field demonstration 

G. W. Rogers Scoring Pure Bred Cows 
Hubert Rogers Dairy Records; What Individual 

Cows Pay 
Mrs Jasper Hopper The Farm Home 

Clinton Tucker The Cheese and Butter Industry 

Field demonstration 

C. S. Lockwood The Farmer and the Comnmnity 

C. W. Haws The Cost of Growing Four Acres 

of Potatoes 
M. H. Minar (Local druggist) Chemistry of Soils 

A boy from this school won first prize at the State Fair for 
box packing apples. The school has this year an exhibit at the 
Oswego County Fruit Growers Association. 

These local schools are for farm boys. The art of farming is 
learned at home and the science of farming is learned in school. 
The art and the science shotild not be divorced ; hence provision 
is made for " home project " work carried on at home under the 
direction of the teacher of agriculture. One of the best of these 
home projects is being carried on by a boy fifteen years old. He 
studied poultry husbandry last year and chose for his problem to 
determine the cost and net income of a sniall flock of hens for 
one year. He set seventy-five white leghorn eggs under five hens. 
May I, 1912. The following were some of the articles constructed 
by this boy from plans and specifications drawn by him : coops and 
yards for yotmg chickens, feed hoppers, roosts, nests, water 
fountain, house and yard for winter. A suitable system of book- 
keeping was devised and account is kept of all income and expendi- 
tures, including estimates not purchased. The young roosters are 
sold for broilers and the pullets kept through the winter. Each 
pullet is numbered and is to be trap nested for eggs. A weekly 
report is made to the teacher of agriculture and the whole project 
is to be summed up by the boy in a thesis to be written next spring. 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 399 

If this most vital part of the work is to be effective, these 
schools should be in operation during the summer. This doe's 
not necessarily mean that the activities need always be carried on 
within the building especially constructed for formal instruction 
any more than the building need always be used for formal 
instruction. At all times one or more of the teachers should be 
in the community. As many as possible of the pupils should be 
carrying on work all the time, in school, at home or elsewhere. 

During the past year the teacher of agriculture at Walton was 
employed for twelve months. A number of movements have been 
started which have created a wide community interest. One which 
met with special favor was the organization of corn and potato- 
growing contests. Twenty-five boys and girls of the town were 
enrolled in these contests. The members were visited during the 
summer by the teacher of agriculture. One public-spirited citizen 
contributed a suit of clothes as first prize in the corn-growing con- 
test and another contributed a phonograph as first prize in the 
potato-growing contest. These prizes were awarded at the Corn 
and Potato Congress held in October in the high school auditorium. 

An experimental plot of bet^^•een two and three acres was 
loaned to the school by the Fair Association. Part of this land 
has been set aside for school gardens for the lower grades. Suit- 
able prizes, donated by local merchants, were awarded to the 
owners of the best gardens. The remainder of the land was used 
for plot tests with corn, potatoes and alfalfa. Cornell seed corn 
was planted and the results compared with those obtained from 
planting some native seed corn furnished by a local grower. 
The three plots of alfalfa attracted much attention during the week 
of the county fair. Local farmers are much interested in this work. 
Men in the community contributed the fertilizer, teams and imple- 
ments necessary to carry on these experiments. The Fair Asso- 
ciation also offered thirty dollars in prizes in a plowing contest 
held during the fair. A farmers' club is also in active operation 
and holds weekly meetings during the winter. 

Other schools are carrying on similar activities and present con- 
ditions indicate that the real success of the school of agriculture 
is in proportion as this community work is taken up. 

The Division of Vocational Schools has, in a previous report, 
pointed out the necessity of and opportunity for the establishment 



400 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

of a system of continuation schools which would provide for the 
boys and girls who are employed at least part of the time. The 
schools of agriculture are already, in many places, filling this need 
along the lines of agriculture. A large number (mostly boys) of 
those enrolled in the work in agriculture attend from three to six 
months of the year. Some of these study only the vocational 
subjects; other enter the full curriculum. Even more eiifort should 
be made to meet the needs of these pupils. Thev are usuallv after 
education rather than counts or diplomas. 

The school can not be the best expression of the community unless 
provision is made for the girls as well as for the boys. Already 
six of the schools of agriculture have made definite provision by the 
employment of a teacher of domestic science. Present conditions 
indicate that the smaller schools will have two vocational teachers : 
a teacher of agriculture and a teacher of homemaking. If the 
teacher of -homemaking is also qualified to teach some of the special 
subjects of agriculture as fruit growing, poultry husbandry and 
dairying, there could be provision made for four years of vocational 
work for both boys and girls. 

It is well known that the thing most cherished is that which comes 
with conscious efifort. People take pride in an institution which is 
an expression, in part at least, of their own work. With community 
equipment, community lecturers, and community assistance in the 
school there is an opportunity for the correction of one of our 
great economic wastes. From the standpoint of economy, it is time 
that the various state and federal supported endeavors in the field 
of agriculture should organize for conservation and concentration 
of effort. In practically every separate line of activity the leaders 
have found: (i) Local and individual work is most efl:'ective ; 
(2) at least one person who knows the community conditions and 
needs must act as agent; (3) this person should be especially trained 
in agricultural work ; (4) community investment is desirable. 

Farm bureaus, farm agents and specialists could best wdrk 
through and in cooperation with a community school of agriculture. 
Whenever possible these schools should cooperate in and carry on 
this work. The teacher or teachers of agriculture might well be 
the local representatives of all agricultural activities of the 
community. 

Only five-twelfths of the work of a pupil in a school of agricul- 
ture is along distinctly vocational lines. There is strong reason to 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 



401 



believe that the other seven-twelfths should be considered more 
from the standpoint of the environment of the pupil and his future 
plans than is at present the case. Just what modification should 
be made is not entirely settled. There is need of trial. One or two 
middle or senior schools should be induced to center all the school 
activities around the work in agriculture. These schools should be 
cut loose from all tradition and allowed to develop as pure com- 
munity schools. There is little doubt but that an experiment of this 
kind would lead to a similar procedure in many districts in the State. 
Three teachers might well specialize in these schools, one to teach 
boys, one to teach girls and one to teach both boys and girls. 

High schools teaching vocational agriculture 



I S3'" 

n O 

6 fi rt 



c 2^ S 
■55 c +j i2 

^ - o 






Albion 

Atlanta 

Belleville 

Belmont 

Brushton 

Gowanda 

Greigsville . . . . 

Hancock 

Hannibal 

Highland 

Interlaken . . . . 

Jordan 

LeRoy 

Little Valley . . 

Lowville 

Mexico 

Millbrook 

Moravia 

Newark Valley 

Penn Yan 

Perry 

Prattsburg . . . . 
Red Creek . . . . 
Sinclairville . . . 

Stamford 

Walton 

Worcester 

Total . . .' . . 



17 
15 
21 
16 
26 
18 
2 

14 
18 

15 
25 
22 

14 

25 
10 

24 
12 
10 
22 

15 
10 

19 
21 

23 
27 

23 
26 



24 

9 
18 

I 

9 
30 
13 

I 

5 



24 
2 

32 
2 



23 
12 



10 
10 



7 

ID 

8 
6 
3 
4 
14 
I 

4 



15 

5 



50 
10 



40 



7 

14 
25 
23 

9 
25 

9 
13 

25 



20 
II 



16 



II 
12 



II 

3 
100 



3 
13 



60 

15 

II 

6 

13 



150 

5 



II 

18 

9 

19 



6 
40 



28 



490 



246 209 



260 



499 



40^ 



New YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Seventeen other high schools are teaching agriculture to 268 pupils, 
without expecting -special State aid. These are given below: 

New York State high schools having a course in academic agriculture 



SCHOOL 


ft 
3 
ft 

B 
3 
2 


Remarks 


Angola 




Only half-year course, January to June. Will 


Batavia 


25 
18 
II 
25 
14 

16 

7 
40 

7 

24 

8 

17 
12 

9 

12 

23 


probably have about 30 pupils 


Cambridge 

Canajoharie 

Delhi 


Dairying course 


Dexter 


Last year cereals and forage crops and potato 


Dundee 

Falconer 

Gardenville 

Gilbertsville 

Greenwich 

Hammondsport 

Liberty 

Minoa 

Palenville 


growing. This year, cereals and forage 
crops and poultry raising 

Two half-year courses — animal husbandry 
and cereals and forage crops 

Potato growing and general fruit growing 

Pupils take more interest in agriculture than 
any other. It inculcates a desire to study 
their own home and surroundings 


Pulaski 


Schoharie 


First half-year agriculture 3. Second half-year 
agriculture 7 





VOCATIONAL TRAINING OF WOMEN 
The breaking of London shop windows by women calls for big 
headlines in newspapers, but their breaking into our great productive 
industries, organizing into trade tmion leagues and the demanding 
of equal pay, receives less attention ; but to the latter facts there is 
deeper significance. There is something in the air with relation to 
women's work and women's economic, political and social status. 
It is no sudden development. Woman is neither a slave nor a doll 
of the former days. No longer is she the woman who spends, but 
rather the woman who produces. 

The history of women in the United States is the story of the 
great industrial readjustment which has not only carried woman's 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 403 

work from the home to the factory, but has changed its economic 
character from unpaid production for home consumption to gainful 
employment in the manufacture of articles for sale. Their work 
has been removed from the home to the factory and workshop. 
Their range of possible employment has been increased and at the 
same time their monopoly of their traditional occupations has been 
destroyed. The individuality of their work, like that of men, has 
been lost in the standardized factory product. Similarly, as in the 
case of the history of man's work, the history of woman's work in 
this country shows that education and legislation have been the 
only forces which have improved the working conditions of any 
large number of woman wage-earners. Proportionately less, how- 
ever, has been done for woman than for man and the former for 
a longer period of time has worked under conditions which have 
involved not only great hardships to herself but shocking waste to 
the community. 

Assuming that woman has settled upon her " rights " and that 
she is prepared in her mind to enter the field of the world's work, 
it is necessary to think of her preparation for this work. The same 
human forces which are asserting her rights to vote, to work, to 
hold property, and to have equal pay must attack the problem of 
woman's education. If she is to work in the foundry, the machine 
shop, the electrical department, the textile mill, the printing office, 
the field, the office and the store, then she must be prepared for the 
work just as man is to be prepared for it. If human society can 
come to the conclusion that the foundry shop, the sweat shop, the 
file-cutting shop and the grinding shops are not suitable places for 
women, then human society must so improve the industrial and 
economic conditions of such work that woman can work in it.' 

In general it may be said that provisions for training in industrial 
occupations are not yet so fully developed for girls as for boys. 
Among the many reasons for this at least one stands out promi- 
nently, namely, many hardly realize, not even women themselves, 
the decrease in the amount of unremunerated home labor and the 
increase in the importance of wage labor together with the com- 
paratively large amount of shifting of occupations from one sex to 
the other. Under the old domestic system, the work of the woman 
was to spin, to weave, to sew, to knit; in general to make most of 
the clothing worn by the family; to cook, to brew and to clean. 
But machines have now come in to aid in all these industries. In 
their train have followed men operatives. Not only has the 



404 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

productive power of the individual been greatly increased, but many 
Priscillas have left their spinning wheels to hunt for other work. 
Men tailors make every year thousands of women's suits, men make 
our bread, brew our ale, and do much of the work of the steam 
laundry, and men are now cleaning our houses by the vacuum 
process. The following statistics give some idea of the change of 
occupations of women employed in gainful pursuits : the proportion 
of all the gainfully employed women engaged in " agricultural pur- 
suits " decreased from 21.6 per cent in 1870 to 18.4 per cent in 
1900, and the proportion engaged in " domestic and personal serv- 
ice " decreased from 58.1 per cent in 1870, to 44.6 per cent in 
1880, to 39.4 per cent in 1900. At the same time the proportion 
engaged in " professional service " increased from 6.7 per cent in 
1880 to 8.1 per cent in 1900, the proportion engaged in "manu- 
facturing and mechanical pursuits " increased from 19.3 per cent 
in 1870 to 24.7 per cent in 1900, and the proportion engaged in 
" trade and transportation " increased from i per cent in 1870 to 
9.4 per cent in 1900. It is evident that the importance of domestic 
and personal service has greatly decreased, while the importance of 
manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, trade and transportation 
and professional service has increased. 

Some educators still have an idea that training for girls should 
prepare only for homemaking, ignoring the fact that many must 
and do work for a number of years outside the home. Training in 
homemaking must nevertheless be included in vocational education 
for girls as well as training for a trade or occupation and this two- 
fold phase of the problem introduces complications. Training for 
efificient service in the home and training for efficient service in the 
factory and store must go hand in hand. 

Boys have little opportunity for training in apprenticeship systems 
under modern industrial conditions, but apprenticeship for girls 
has never meant any thorough training. In the early colonial days 
apprenticeship for the girl meant simply a hiring out at domestic 
service until of age. Up to the present, apprenticeship in manu- 
facturing industries has usually meant to girls merely work and 
not industrial training. 

In former days to teach girls to spin, to weave, to sew and to 
cook was to prepare them for the great advent in their lives — 
marriage, keeping of the home and the care of children. Gradually, 
however, as girls have been forced on the one hand by machinery 
which has taken away their home work, and on the other hand by 
division of labor which has drawn them into all manner of apparently 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 405 

strange occupations ; to undertake tasks which have no direct interests 
or direct bearing to them as prospective wives and mothers, there has 
grown up a condition which can be solved only through education, 
and vocational education at that. 

The problem of deciding what vocations shall be taught to girls 
is a difficult one. In a field of education as comparatively new as 
vocational education for girls, it is highly important that we be 
extremely careful in deciding upon the trades which shall be taught. 
We must ascertain which industries employ large numbers of 
women ; which industries require skilled workers ; which offer the 
opportunity of a steady rise to better positions ; which do not ade- 
quately provide the necessary training themselves ; which pay good 
wages for reasonable hours of work; which are conducted under 
proper physical, sanitary and moral conditions ; which provide work 
the year around ; and in case of seasonal trades, what oppor- 
tunities exist for the worker to use the dull season in one trade 
for work in another trade. 

While this report is obviously concerned with vocational train- 
ing for industrial pursuits it might be well at this place to point out 
that there are many agencies at work training women into what 
may be termed the higher vocations. A few years ago teaching 
was about the only so-called higher vocation into which they might 
enter. Now we have the fields of social service, of scientific work, 
of business, of secretarial work, of literary work and of art, in 
addition to the professions of law and medicine. For the past 
decade there has been earnest and progressive propaganda by 
collegiate alumni associations to turn college women into work other 
than teaching. It should be the aim of public schools to do what 
they may to redirect young girls from the unskilled into the skilled 
trades ; from vocations in which they are at present exploited into 
vocations where they may make the most of themselves. Already 
this Department is encouraging the high schools of this State to 
enrol girls in their agricultural courses. This is a step in the right 
direction. There seem to be no inherent reasons why women should 
not occupy positions of responsibility and trust in connection with 
almost every line of agriculture. There are numerous instances in 
which a farmer's success has depended more on the business ability, 
knowledge, energy and tact of his wife than on his own attainments. 
In certain specialties the opportunities for women in farming are as 
great as for men. It would seem preeminently fitting for women 
to become managers of poultry raising, bee-keeping and flower- 



406 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

growing establishments, and in but slightly less degree, of vegetable 
gardening and fruit-growing enterprises. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the number of women 
farmers and landlords in Tompkins county. The New York State 
College of Agriculture in making an agricultural survey visited 
practically every farm in the towns of Ithaca, Dryden, Danby and 
Lansing. Of 957 farms in these four towns, 87, or more than 9 per 
cent, were owned by women. Of these 87 farms, 41 were operated 
by their owners, and 46, or 53 per cent, were rented to tenants. Of 
the 870 farms owned by men, only 16 per cent were rented to 
tenants. The comparison shows that a much greater proportion 
of the women than of the men rented their farms in preference to 
assuming the direct management of them. This would naturally be 
expected. Altogether there were 181 rented farms, and 25 per cent 
of these were owned by women. Of the tenants on these 181 rented 
farms, only one was a woman. The average farm income made by 
these women was $428. Besides having the use of a house and farm 
products to eat, the average woman had $428 to live on, provided 
there was no previous indebtedness. This amount in the country, 
with no rent to pay, with at least half the table necessities and most 
of the fuel supplied, aflfords a comfortable living. 

To return to the question of vocational training for girls in the 
productive industries, the ideals of such training must be first to 
train a girl that she may become self-supporting ; second, to furnish 
a training which shall enable the worker to shift from one occupa- 
tion to another allied occupation ; third, to teach a girl to under- 
stand her relation to her employer, to her fellow worker and to her 
product ; fourth, to train her to value health and to know how to 
keep and improve it ; fifth, to develop a better woman while making 
a successful worker. 

There are five types of vocational education for girls which are 
found in our schools : 

I Homemaking courses in the seventh and eighth grades. In 
these courses the girls devote ten hours a week to work in domestic 
art and science, and five hours a week to art and design as a subject 
correlated with the stvidy of textiles and home decoration. The 
course in geography is arranged' to deal with the nature of the 
region supplying the vegetable and animal materials with the 
qualifications of the raw material and its transportation. The work 
in history shows the development of the textile industries, the effect 
on the life of the people working in them due to the invention of 
weaving and spinning machinery. In an elementary way the girls 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 40/ 

discuss the subject of unions and workers and consumers to bring 
out the idea that each organization is for the purpose of verifying 
the individual's endeavor to produce and consume under the best 
possible conditions and with the best possible results. Hudson and 
Schenectady have schools organized on this basis. 

2 Preparatory trade schools giving half the school time to dress- 
making, millinery and household science and the remainder to closely 
related academic work. These schools while giving training along 
lines of homemaking go more intensively into direct preparation for 
service in dressmaking and millinery trades. Such schools are ex- 
pected to arouse a set of vocational interests apart from the vocation 
of homemaking and to furnish a training along these vocations of 
sufficient value so that the girl may go to work in these trades and 
earn a living from the start. It is not to be assumed that she is a 
full-fledged dressmaker or milliner but it is to be taken for granted 
that she has knowledge and skill far above that of the untrained 
worker. Albany, Rochester and Buffalo have such schools. The 
Buffalo school is at present looking into the possibility of continua- 
tion work for department store girls and in its preliminary survey 
expects to find out where girls work in large numbers, what is 
required of them and what the schools may do to improve 
conditions. 

3 Trade schools proper which give most of their school time to 
intensive trade training and comparatively little to homemaking and 
academic subjects. Dressmaking and millinery are taught in all 
these schools. In addition power machine operating on cloth and 
straw hats, novelty work and trade art are given in the Manhattan 
Trade School of New York City. The novelty work includes the 
use of paste and glue in sample mounting, sample-book covers, 
labeling, tissue-paper novelties and decorations, the covering and 
lining of cases and boxes, jewelry and silverware casemaking, lamp 
and candle shade making. The work in trade art includes 
costume sketching, stamping and perforating. Drawing is closely 
related to all trade work. Pupils are urged to learn several lines of 
work so that during dull seasons in one trade other work may be 
open. Practically all the shopwork is on actual commercial products 
which are sold to individuals and firms at market prices. The value 
of the products sold in eighteen months was about $24,000. It is 
impossible at this writing to outline all the trades which may be 
taught in girls trade schools. A careful survey must be made in 
each city which expects to start such a school and the vocational 



408 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

guidance bureaus have much to contribute in the solution of the 
problem. 

4 Four-year courses in high school giving from one-third to one- 
half of the school time to handwork including applied art with 
specialization in the latter part of the course in one special field 
such as dressmaking or millinery or domestic science or commercial 
designing or illustrating and fashion drawing. Preparation for 
college is not the dominating aim in such a type of school. The 
academic subjects are not treated in the usual manner. Mathe- 
matics, for example, is taught more as a tool for use in the shop 
and in industry than as an abstract science. The science courses are 
likewise treated as applied science. The Washington Irving High 
School of New York City comes under this head. Graduates from 
this school are going out into the world earning a good living in 
making designs and drawings for fashion papers and as workers in 
millinery and dressmaking shops. 

5 Evening classes. This work usually includes practical training 
in such subjects as cooking, needlework in plain sewing and garment 
making and the trimming of hats, all for domestic purposes. It may 
include and should include the training of girls in evening classes 
for dressmaking and millinery trades as well as giving them train- 
ing in these lines as household accomplishments. There are six 
groups of girls to be considered in providing for evening instruction : 
( I ) shop and factory girls who seek additional training looking to 
greater efficiency and wage-earning capacity in the occupations in 
which they are employed; (2) housewives and homemakers who 
seek training in the theory and technic of household economy; (3) 
girls engaged in household service who seek technical training in 
domestic economy looking to greater efficiency and wage-earning 
capacity in their calling; (4) shop and factory girls seeking training 
in order that they may shift from one wage-earning occupation to 
another closely related to the one in which they are engaged; (5) 
shop, factory, office and store girls who seek some simple training 
in some activity as a personal and convenient accomplishment but 
not looking toward following up this training for 'wage-earning 
purposes; (6) those girls of a type similar to the above who are 
now working but soon expect to enter the home as wives and home- 
makers. 

In this connection it may be said that the training of young 
women in household arts where they have reached the age of 
evening class pupils will yield larger returns in proportion to the 



VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS 409 

amount of time devoted to it than similar training in any previous 
period of their Hves, as such training is given to them at a time 
when the home-keeping instinct is a strong factor in their Hves. ^ 

After a survey of the field has been made in order to plan a 
type of vocational school which will meet the needs of the girls 
of the community, there remains the problem of outlining a course 
of study. No single type of school will meet the requirements of 
the various localities of this State. 



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